A Call out for Libraries

Libraries are our friends.  –Neil Gaiman

I've touched on this subject before - but its dear to my heart and I worry we might lose such precious resources so I'm going to bat on about it again!!

Its about 57 years since I joined my first library.. I was the youngest person to become a member of our local branch and I had to satisfy two major conditions.. the first, being fairly obvious was that I could read, and the second, was that I was big enough and strong enough to open the heavy wooden swing doors.  The library itself was in a building at the end of our road and I used to think I was allowed to go on my own not realizing I was followed at a discreet distance on all my early visits. 

It was a lovely library set on two floors and. Completely paneled and furnished by the mouse man - Robert Thompson, beautiful heavy wooden furniture and panels with little mice carved in a odd intervals.  At the tender age of 4 I was totally convinced  that the mice ran about at night .... it was a place that fed my imagination for many years and fueled my love of books and reading.

I discovered many favourite books and characters in those formative years, from moomins to babar the elephant ... plus all the usual favourites, Enid Blyton, Arthur Ransome, Alan Garner, Dr Seuss and many many more the library allowed me unlimited access to a never ending education and imagination in an all absorbing matter of  reading material.

I remember when I suddenly realised I was reading adults books and had largely left children's stories behind. I'd dallied with Jean Plaidy but finally dived in following my mums taste good old Agatha Christie.. the first one I read was Hickory Dickory Dock, I was 11 years old and felt very grown up!

I was and still am a voracious reader.. I've been a serious book snob in the past but really believe that its better to read anything, even a red top,  then read nothing.  I'll sit and scrutinise the cornflake packet if there's nothing else to read and it was was one of the few rules in our house that there was no reading at the dinner/breakfast table so sometimes the packets just had to make do.

I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure.

–Virginia Woolf

My love of libraries has followed my through life despite a very unpleasant school librarian who did her best to discourage the riffraff from using her (once again beautifully furnished and paneled by the mouse man) school library...

I always join the library where ever I live and make extensive use of them when travelling.  Its resource people under value. I love the fact anyone can go to the library and test read unknown authors at no financial risk .. you can order books you want to try for me this is a godsend... I cant afford to fund my reading habit, and I don't have to find storage space... a constant problem now we have downsized houses.   We still are planning floor to ceiling built in book shelves as nearly all our books are still in storage.

A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.  –Lemony Snicket

As one does, I was lying in bed trying to work out how many books I had read over my lifetime - its surprisingly few given whats out there... working on averaging 3 books a week since aged ten I'm rounding it up to fifty years of solid immersion into words mainly on paper but more recently also using electronic book readers I have probably read 7500 plus books.... a mere drop in the ocean...

According to the interweb the average person reads 12 per year - I cant imagine making a book last a month ha ha ...

Anyway there is a point to this rambling... use it or lose it!!!! Everyone should join the library - we need to show they are a community necessity and remember they do more then provide books, there are many different services available and for some people they are a lifeline.  GO JOIN YOUR LIBRARY!!!!!

People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.

–Saul Bellow